The Gospel of Matthew was translated into Lowland Scots by George Henderson in 1861.
Sponsor
The Gospel of Matthew was commissioned by the philologist Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813‑1891), a nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte. Louis Lucien Bonaparte moved to London in the early 1850s setting up home at 6‑8 Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater, London. He was fluent in Italian, French, Spanish, English and Basque and became an active member of the Philological Society. Bonaparte was particularly interested in minority languages. He would pay for the printing of many translations of portions of the Bible that he commissioned, in minority languages of Europe.
Publication
The Gospel was printed with the title: "The Gospel of St Matthew, translated into Lowland Scotch, by George Henderson". Originally 250 copies were published by Strangeways and Walden of 28 Castle Street in London, in 1862. In the original print each verse is set on a new line, and the first word of each chapter was in capital letters, with the first letter as a large capital.
Digital Edition
This Scots Gospel of Matthew in Lowland Scotch 1861 was digitised for the Scottish Bible Society, with the help of MissionAssist in 2026. It was digitised from an original copy given by Louis Lucien Bonaparte, which is at the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) archives at Cambridge University.
